"In the Life"

As part of my new and improved social life, I went with Chaka down to Halo last night to meet his buddy from Iraq who is in town briefly - we'll call him NavyHot.

Well Chaka was looking fetching again last night - he had a festive, rich blue striped shirt with a V neck chunky cable knit grey sweater - it was a good look for him. I was going to wear V neck merino wool sweater over a crisp white shirt (in honor of my Halo debut - I wanted to look "gay") with my money Lucky jeans - but, right before leaving, I opted for a minimal plaid tangerine button down - a little splash of color. Good thing too - because NavyHot had was wearing my first outfit - fashion disaster averted.

NavyHot and Chaka have been buddies for ages and it was nice to sit and chat with them and share some thoughts and giggles - our schedule was Halo and then Taint and back home by 1am so Chaka could watch Rome. So we cocktailed at Halo and gossiped. Then over to Taint which had a long line outside (Chaka's money quote "This bitch does not do a queue") and it was shockingly cold last night. (The snow squalls were gorgeous last night). We bumped into Jimbo outside Taint and did a quick hi/bye. A quick cab ride and we were back at Halo. We had some more cocktails and tried to get NavyHot some action. Overall, it was a festive night.

Now I have studiously avoided Halo for two years - partially because I am a smoker, partially because I like butch guys, and partially because the bar looked too cool for my taste.

I am delighted to report that I had a great time last night. Good cocktails and we hit 2 for 1 night - great for volume cocktailers. As expected, the crowd was a tad precious.

When I walked into Halo (the first time), the whole adventure was worth it, as I finally got to see what the fuss in the Bitch Session has been for the past month.

Background: There has been an on-going "discussion" in the Bitch Session in the Blade about how the self-described "Brothers in the Life" were not "allowed" upstairs. This subset felt they were restricted to the downstairs and effectively segregated.

When I was reading this in the Bitch Session, I thought that it sounded silly - almost like Al Sharpton had written it. And last night I saw a gaggle who could meet this Bitch Session description downstairs talking amongst themselves. And upstairs I did not see any similar gaggles. Interestingly, I did not have to pass any barriers or racial checkpoints to get upstairs. So this little oddity was cleared up - the only thing separating "in the life" downstairs and the "gays" upstairs is 30 steps and an attitude adjustment.